Ender's Game Story For School PLEASE READ!
by Sahbra Girl
Summary: I know not many people have read Ender's Game, but it doesn't matter. It's only 5 pages and I would really appreciate it if you could HARSHLY critique me! Please keep in mind it IS a short story, so not alot of plot.


_**Insert Creative and Witty Title Here**_

"_Special_."

That's what they called my sister. When she was five years old the doctors told us she wouldn't be able to do the same things we could. That she may have trouble in school and activities like sports. The other children were cruel to her; they called her 'Halfa,' as in half a brain. Most of the time she didn't hear them, or just couldn't understand. But other times she would come home bawling, trying desperately to muffle her sobs from our parents so they wouldn't worry. Her wheel chair made a loud thumping noise as the rubber wheels hit the concrete stairs leading into our house.

I heard that thumping noise as I walked down the halls of the battle school, but that time it was the soles of my battle suit slapping the carpeted corridors. Clomp, clomp, clomp, each beat was timed with the beat of my heart. Each thud reminded me of why I was here, of who I was fighting for.

The rest of my army stood before the door to the battle room. The Dragon Army was assembled too; I could almost see them beyond the walls. I wondered if they were as nervous as we were. The pre-launchies shuffled their feet as our Commander walked to the front of the group. He was lean but strong, with a shaggy mop of black hair that almost completely covered his eyes. Sometimes I wondered how he stopped himself from running into walls. He breathed a deep sigh and flexed his fingers at his sides. After a moment of tense silence he spoke.

"The Dragon Army is tough. They've won five out of five fights, and I bet they're aiming for a perfect six out of six. Now I've seen them practice before, and I know a few of you have too…"

There were acknowledging mumbles from the group.

"… and we all know that they're damn good. Probably too good for us to beat. They know how to maneuver the best, shoot the best, strategize and think the best! They are the best team out there, and I highly doubt that we can beat them!"

He was almost yelling now, I could see the strain in his face. I looked around at the rest of the team, their heads hung low, feeling the stinging words cut into the back of their necks.

"But we can damn well try! We can give them the best and hardest battle they ever had to fight! We're going to make them think in ways they shouldn't have to, make them have to completely abandon what they thought was a perfect strategy. We may not win, but we won't just give up like everyone else! We will not and can not loose!"

A few people looked up, puzzled. Was our Commander delirious? Didn't he _just_ say we had no hope in beating them? He looked back at us, puzzled at _our_ expressions and slightly angry.

"Don't you under_stand_?" He whispered harshly, "_They_ aren't the enemy!" He jabbed a finger at the wall, supposedly where the Dragon Army stood waiting, "They are!" he thrust a finger upward. The teacher's floor. "They're the ones who tore us away from our homes, who make us fight and train endlessly, who put those stupid monitors on us for years-"

I twitched involuntarily and he saw me out of the corner of his eye. He paused, and then continued as if nothing happened.

"-they are the ones who brought us up here, a million miles away from our family and friends to train for some so-called 'war' that we will never fight in!"

Chatter broke out between my team members. Our Commander allowed it for a few moments before quieting them down.

"I don't plan on winning this battle. I _do_ plan on helping the Dragon Team get better, helping Ender get better. Because we may not be fighting in that war, but he will. Everyone understand?"

"Yessir!" Our voices chorused.

"Then get in their already!" he shouted, grinning. We all laughed and filed in one by one, organized by toons. I was the last one through the door, he stopped me with his arm.

"You gonna fight hard today Stage?" His brow was furrowed; I couldn't tell if it was anger or worry.

"Always do sir," I replied.

"I said call me Keyon,"

"No thanks, _sir_," I retorted as I stepp­­­­­­­­­­ed through the door, cutting him off. I saw him roll his eyes­ out of the corner of my mine, but I lost interest quickly as I saw the battle room.

There were at least ten stars positioned conveniently in front of our door, and about seven scattered near it for quick cover and shooting. The Dragon Army had three, positioned in an "L" slightly sideways to their door. It took only a moment for their Commander, Ender, to realize that they had been set up. Our group took open fire on the helpless Dragon Army, immobilizing three and damaging six others. Ender was shouting commands to the remaining army. Three of their five toons dashed behind the stars and the other two went left and right, sliding down the walls to our "base."

Our army froze their legs, and sometimes their arms, but for the most part they were still shooting. No one in our army got hit because we were safely hidden behind the stars. One of the pre-launchies got shot in the hand, but the rest of his body was fine. Within five minutes the entire "ambush" the Dragon Army set out towards us was demolished, speeding hopelessly through the nul. Keyon shouted for us to advance towards the army's door. Each toon came out swiftly to get behind the scattered stars for shelter. No one from the Dragon Army even tried to shoot at us. A few of us chuckled and taunted them but they never came out. Keyon told us to advance again and feel free to shoot the hell out of them when you come around the edge of their little "fort" of stars.

We slowly floated to the three stars. Keyon made the number four with his fingers then pointed to the stars. Toon four needs to go first. I rolled my eyes and followed my toon leader to the stars. We slowly drew near the "fort," then we all pushed off the wall to zoom around and get them from behind. We held our guns out as we turned around to see… nothing. We gasped and lost control in the gravity, flying into the walls.

"Ooo, that'll leave a bruise," groaned my friend Lynn, rubbing her arm that had hit one of the handles.

Keyon zoomed over, enraged, "What's wrong, why aren't you shooting-" he saw the empty space behind the stars. Confounded, he starting babbling, "B-but… but where could they have… they couldn't have… where did they go? Where _could_ they go?"

One of the pre-launchies gasped and pointed across the room. There was the rest of Dragon Army, clustered behind _our_ base. Keyon swore loudly, and the Dragon Army took that as a signal of recognition.

"Fire!" Ender's voice rang loud and clear over the Tiger army's panicked chatter. The exposed toons were slaughtered mercilessly in the brutal onslaught. Only three members of the fourth toon and Keyon had been sheltered from the attack by the stars. The Dragon Army waited for us to come out.

"What do we do?"­­­­ Lynn said in an alarmed whisper. Keyon thought for a moment.

"They have the upper hand…" he started.

"Obviously," I cut in.

"…so there's not much we can do now…"

"Duh," I cut in again. He glared at me.

"…so I say we just give it our best shot and try to freeze as many people as we can."

"That's stupid," I finished.

"Can _you _think of something better?" he said coldly.

"Yes." I said as I grabbed one of the rookie's guns and pushed off the wall as strongly as I could with my legs. I quickly rotated so my toes were pointed directly at the base and my speed increased. They easily froze my feet and shins, but they were having difficulty hitting anywhere else. I gripped both guns in my hands and began shooting at the heads poking out from behind the base. The remains of the tiger team followed, and we froze at least half of the remaining Dragon Army.

Unfortunately, when we got to stars we had nothing else to do but collide and go spinning off, exposing the rest of our body and being shot. I was still spinning when I heard the door sigh open and the bell that announced the Dragon Army had won. After a minute or two, Ender got around to unfreezing us with the hook. We shook hands and exchanged compliments with the Dragon Army like normal. Then we all exited out the door and went to the showers, then lunch.

While I was walking down the hall I encountered the Dragon Army's Commander, Ender. Everyone talked about him, how good he was for such a young age. When Keyon ordered us to watch the Dragon Army at practice, I had assumed he was about thirteen, my age. But now that I see him in person he can't be any older then eleven. He stopped in front of me.

"Good game," he remarked.

"Hn," I replied, desperately wanting to take a shower, not talk to this 'Child Wonder' as everyone called him.

"That was a good idea you came up with at the end," I looked up, one eyebrow raised. My own commander didn't even compliment me, what was another team's Commander thinking, giving me praise? "Of course it couldn't have won the game, but you sure froze a lot of us. You guys are one of the only teams that use the 'up-down' orientation like the Dragon Team," he talked as if he weren't part of his army.

"We learned it from watching your team practice, there's nothing original about it," I answered coldly.

"Yes, but at least you're smart enough to use it,"

"Hm," There was silence.

"Why do you fight so hard?" He asked.

I looked up, brow furrowed, "what?"

"I heard your Commander talking before… what's his name… Keyon?" I nodded. "He was saying how the teachers are the enemies, that there is no war, no second Bugger attack,"

"Well I don't believe all the nonsense he spouts,"

"You seem to believe that," he said seriously. I paused to think.

"Yes, I guess I do," I finally agreed. Why is he talking to me? I just want to take a stupid shower.

"Then why do you fight so hard, knowing that in the end it's totally pointless, why don't you just give up?" Again I paused to consider what he said.

"I guess because I have something that I need to fight _for_. Do you know that eighty seven percent of the government's funds are going towards this battle school, all the weapons, the ships, and anything else to do with this stupid war?" He shook his head. "Well, it's true. The stupid government doesn't even care about it's citizens. They wouldn't mind if we all died, as long as they still have soldiers to fight."

"Then why are you fighting for them?"

"I'm not. I'm fighting for my sister. She needs that money more then anyone else." There was more silence. I waited for him to ask me why, but he just stood there staring back. I decided to just continue. "She's a third." He twitched, and I could swear his face expressed a immense, deep sorrow, but it was gone in a blink of an eye.

"She was going to come up here. My brother and I were failed '_experiments_,'" my voice dropped with spite as I said the last word. "We couldn't obey, we were lazy, and we would never be able to pay attention through the whole training. So my parents were to have a third. She was beautiful, and intelligent. By the time she was two she could read the three hundred page novel I couldn't dream of finishing. But then they had to put on the damn monitor." Again his face twitched. Should I stop, I don't want him to go psycho on me like he did on Bone-head. I continued anyway.

"It was only on her for two years before they decided she was perfect for the program. She went to have it taken off and… well, she went into a coma for a few days. Apparently the monitor's battery had broken and was leaking into her brain for the whole two years, slowly devouring her brain cells. By the time they had taken if off she had become 'addicted' to the battery 'juice' and so she went into extreme-withdrawal. When she finally woke up after a week, half of her brain was permanently decayed, rotted because of the government's testing. She's still alive, but she has to use a wheel chair. The doctors said they can giver her a medicine, one that mimics the battery 'juice' only it won't harm the rest of her brain. If she takes the pill daily for the rest of her life, she will be a perfectly normal human been."

"Of course, there's always a catch," I laughed bitterly. "The pills cost about a thousand dollars for one month's supply. The doctor said that usually the government would pay for the medicine, since they caused the mental damage in the first place. But the government weaseled out by saying all their funds were going towards the war and 'saving humanity' so they had no money to spare on silly little civilians and their silly little problems."

Ender looked at me solemnly. I should wrap this up; I'm starting to smell really rank. I took a deep breath and continued exasperatedly, "If we just get this stupid 'war' over, then I can go home and get the government to heal my sister. Like Demosthenes said, 'The most noble title any child can have is Third.' So that's why I'm fighting for this 'war' Ender Wiggin. The question is, why are you?"

With that I walked away, not turning back to look at his face but silently praying, desperately wishing, that he be the one who wins this war.


End file.
